Terrell was born August 30, 1938, in Sherman, Texas.  The majority of his childhood was spent in San Angelo.  He graduated from San Angelo High School in 1956 and was ranked 7th in a senior class of over 400 students.  Terrell was an all-state football center for San Angelo High School and then accepted a football scholarship from Southern Methodist University.

His father, the late Tol Terrell, was one of the better-known hospital administrators in the United States.  He was the first Texan to become Chairman of the American Hospital Association and the first Texas to become Chairman of the American College of Hospital Administrators.

Terrell attended SMU from 1956 to 1960 and graduated with a BBA degree with honors with a 3.6 out of a possible 4.0 grade average.  His major was Marketing.  Terrell was named the outstanding marketing student in 1960, was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma Fraternity; was elected to Blue Key (an honors group), and won the Wall Street Journal Award as the outstanding student in the Business School for 1960.  While at SMU he lettered three years in Varsity football, was an All-Southwest Conference freshman tackle, started two years as linebacker, and was an Academic All-American.  He was chosen as the outstanding student athlete in 1960 and named to Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities.

Terrell is still an active supporter of SMU.  He is a past president of the SMU Mustang Club, and served on the Associate Board for the Business School.

After graduation from SMU in 1960, Terrell returned to San Angelo and started an insurance agency.  He was elected a director of the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce at age 25.  He was a co-founder of the San Angelo Boy's Club.  Terrell was named San Angelo's Outstanding Young Man of the Jaycees in 1966.  At age 26, he became the youngest person ever elected to the San Angelo City Council.

Terrell returned to Dallas in 1967.  In 1969, he founded the Unimark Agencies, which operate in all phases of commercial insurance.  Unimark operates as both a wholesaler and retailer for special property and casualty programs for convenience stores, financial institutions, nursing homes, beverage companies, multi-family housing, real estate portfolios, hospitals and insurance programs to replace maintenance service agreements.

Terrell is currently working with business leader Jack Hammack and former Dallas City Councilman, Gary Griffith, in an effort to “Make Dallas the Safest City in America” that has resulted in a new organization – “Safer Dallas Better Dallas.”  Terrell is Chairman.

They were successful in getting a $15 million grant from the Caruth Foundation in Dallas for the Dallas Police Department.  This is the largest grant in the history of the Caruth Foundation and the largest ever given to a police department in the United States by a foundation.  They also received a grant from the Meadows Foundation to install digital, elevated cameras over downtown Dallas. And they have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy AR-15 assault rifles for Dallas Police Officers.  Hammack and Terrell had over 110 meetings with Dallas leaders from all areas of city life in preparation before launching the organization.  “Safer Dallas Better Dallas” is separate from city government, but its purpose is to raise money for badly needed crime fighting equipment for the Dallas Police Department and to find a way of long term public funding to address the shortage of 750 police officers at the Dallas Police Department.

Terrell was elected a director of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce in 1972 and vice-chairman in charge of membership and finance in 1973.  Terrell was the youngest chamber director.  He was honored by the Dallas Junior Chamber of Commerce with the Distinguished Service Award for 197l as being the outstanding young man in Dallas for that year.  He was also selected as one of the Five Outstanding Young Texans for 1973.  Terrell was chairman of Leadership Dallas for two years and was a founder of that organization.

Terrell was, at 35, the youngest Dallas City Councilman from 1973 to 1975.  He was elected in April 1973, with a 53% vote against 5 opponents.  Terrell served as Chairman of the Council's Financial Committee, represented the Council on the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee (City-County-Schools), served on the sports arena committee, and was a member of the Fire and Police Pension Board.

The Mayor's Criminal Justice Task Force, chaired by Terrell, in 1985-1987, multiplied across Texas.  It sponsored a successful legislative package and worked with all of the Cities of Texas to make crime a priority of the 1987 legislative session.  It had a legislative anti-crime package, "Texas War on Crime," which was successfully introduced in the legislative session and passed eight of thirteen proposals into law.  13 additional bills were passed in the 1989 session.

Terrell chaired the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Crime in 1987-1988.  The Committee's major project was the improvement of relations between the minority communities of Dallas and the Police Department and it led to passage of a comprehensive package of reforms by the Dallas City Council.

In January of 1986, the Governor of Texas, Bill Clements, appointed Terrell Chairman of the Texas Criminal Justice Task Force.  It worked on all areas of the Criminal Justice system and closely coordinated its efforts with the Governor's office and the Legislature.  It initiated an anti-crime Legislative package for the 1989 Session that resulted 21 successful legislation mandates.

Terrell was appointed in 1987 by Governor Clements to Chair the Texas Department of Corrections, the Nation's second largest state prison system, and the 5th largest prison system in the world.

In 1989, Texas merged its prison system, pardons and paroles, and adult probation into the Texas Criminal Justice Department.  In September of 1989, Terrell was named the first chairman of the Department - the largest in the Free World.

The department made great strides in literacy, job training, and drug rehabilitation programs during Terrell's tenure.  In March of 1990, Federal Judge William Wayne Justice released the department from 12 years of outside monitoring.

Texas had the lowest per bed construction cost of any state in America, and one of the lowest operating costs per inmate.

A new 2,250-bed prison in Livingston, Texas was named after Terrell in 1993.  However, several years later death row moved to the Terrell unit.  He campaigned to have his name removed from the unit.  In 2002, his name was removed and put on a prison unit in the Houston area.

In 1980, Mr. Terrell served as a liaison from the insurance industry to the health issues staff of the Carter campaign and later worked with president-elect Carter's staff in addressing national health issues.  He was the only person from the insurance industry working with President Carter's staff.

Terrell served as a Trustee of Texas Wesleyan College in Fort Worth from 1983-85.

Terrell is a past Dallas City Councilman, former vice-chairman of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, served as chairman of the 1980 Parkland Hospital Bond Election, and was the original chairman of Leadership Dallas.  He was the 1993-1994 Chairman of the Greater Dallas Crime Commission.

In January of 1994, Governor Ann Richards appointed Terrell as Chairman of the Texas Summit on Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice.

Charles and his wife of 48 years, Beverly, have two children.  Cathy Williamson is 47, a graduate from SMU in May of 1982, is married to William A. Williamson, III, lives in Birmingham, Alabama and is the mother of three Terrell grandchildren: William Alston Williamson IV, age 22, Catherine Alexandria Williamson (Alex), age 19, and Charles, age 16.  Charlie, Jr., 45, is Marketing Vice-President for Unimark, and is also a graduate of SMU.  He was an All-Metro linebacker in football and captain of the 1980 Highland Park High School Team, and was a multi-division champion as a heavyweight in 7 years of Golden Gloves boxing.  He is married to Ellen Fair Terrell.  They have an 11 year-old son, Ryan, Charles T. Terrell III, age 6, and Will, who is 4 years old.